


Memories of Mistletoe

by Kahlan_Amnell



Series: Drunk!fic Writing [11]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: DRUNK!FIC, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-20
Updated: 2012-06-20
Packaged: 2017-11-10 18:29:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/469335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahlan_Amnell/pseuds/Kahlan_Amnell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reid reminisces over a photo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories of Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by ladykatiekay: 'Reid, photographs'

Dealing with the job that he had, Reid saw a lot of photographs of crime scenes, of victims. And with his eidetic memory, there was no forgetting those horrors.

But the pictures that he wanted to look upon, over and over again, were of the wonderful times he had with his surrogate family over the years.

As much as he had treasured the moments he spent with his mother, going through the family albums, it made him upset to see the notable absence of his father, and it saddened him greatly to see the growing infrequency of the pictures as he had gotten older. The lucid days grew fewer and fewer between with time, and there had been no more photos with his mother since he had gotten his first PhD.

The mother of one of his fellow classmates had offered to take his picture in the cap and gown, and sent him a copy. He smiled wistfully at the memory before picking up a framed picture from his bedside table.

It was a picture of the team— taken several months before Doyle had shown up and turned their lives upside down. Before the State Department had whisked JJ away. Before everything was irrevocably changed.

They were at the annual Christmas party in this particular photograph. Somehow, after numerous failed attempts, Anderson had managed to take a photo of all of them smiling and laughing, with their arms thrown around each other in a group hug.

Even the stoic façade of their fearless leader was cast aside even more so than the occasional small grin and twinkle in the eye he would let shine through. In this picture, he was grinning so widely at a joke Morgan had made. They all were.

He remembered picking up the bough of mistletoe that had fallen to the floor, and rambled about the holiday tradition and the mythology associated with it. Reid also recalled with great amusement his initial reaction when Morgan had grabbed his hand that held the mistletoe and pulled it over their heads, then kissed him.

After Morgan, the rest of them had decided to have a turn, which caused him to blush with how forward they were all behaving. But there wasn’t anything more surprising that night than when Strauss joined in at the end of the line and kissed him too, tipping him backward and slipping him some tongue.

When she broke the kiss off and righted him again, he had sucked in a breath, feeling dazed and a bit unsteady on his feet. Morgan had patted him on the back, saying, “Way to go, man!” and his hand started to sting from the high-fives he had gotten from the agents from the other teams.

Reid remembered the rest of the fun and wild time they had had at the party— even more so as the booze had loosened everyone up as it had gotten later.

There were more memories that were sparked by other memories associated with the split-second that was captured on film. Reid smiled to himself as he brushed a finger tip along each smiling face in the photograph before he sat it back down on the beside table and nestled himself under the blankets. As he fell asleep, there was still a trace of the smile on his lips.


End file.
